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A Shot In The Dark (1964)
Overview A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and is the second installment in The Pink Panther series. Peter Sellers is featured again as Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté.Clouseau's bungling personality is unchanged, but it was in this film that Sellers began to give him the idiosyncratically exaggerated French accent that was to become a hallmark of the character. The film also introduces Herbert Lom as his boss, Commissioner Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk as his long-suffering servant, Cato, who would both become series regulars. Elke Sommer plays Maria Gambrelli. The film was not originally written to include Clouseau, but was an adaptation of a stage play by Harry Kurnitz adapted from the French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.2 The film was released only a few months after the first Clouseau film,The Pink Panther. Inspector Clouseau is called to the country home of Paris plutocrat, Benjamin Ballon, to investigate the murder of hisSpanish chauffeur, Miguel. The chauffeur was having an affair with the maid, Maria Gambrelli, who claims that he often beat her. Although all the evidence points to Gambrelli as the killer, Clouseau refuses to admit her guilt. For the real culprits to keep the truth hidden from Clouseau's boss, Commissioner Charles Dreyfus, they must commit more murders. With the murders of Georges the gardener, Dudu (Ann Lynn) the maid, and Henri LaFarge the head butler, Maria is arrested, and Clouseau sets her free; but is himself arrested police four times in quick succession (first for selling balloons without a license, then for selling paintings without a license, then for hunting without a license, and finally with Maria Gambrelli for public nudity, after they flee a nudist community). As Clouseau continues to bungle the case, Commissioner Dreyfus becomes increasingly agitated, as by accidentally cutting off his thumb and stabbing himself with a letter-opener. Concealing himself, he stalks Clouseau, but accidentally kills a doorman instead, as well as two café customers and a Cossack dancer. It is revealed that Ballon, his wife Dominique, Madame LaFarge, Pierre the driver, and Simone the maid are guilty of murder: each of them having killed one of the earlier murder victims, with Maurice the manservant as a blackmailer, and Maria innocent of any crime. The guilty escape in Clouseau's car; but this is destroyed by Commissioner Dreyfus. At the end of the film, Clouseau's aide-de-camp Hercule LaJoy arrests Dreyfus, while Clouseau and Maria celebrate the clearing of her name with a long and passionate kiss—the latter interrupted by Kato, Clouseau's manservant. Sellers had been committed to star in the film before the release and success of The Pink Panther but was not pleased with the script. He approached Edwards, with whom he had worked so fruitfully on that film, and asked him to take over as director of A Shot in the Dark. Edwards declined initially, but eventually relented under Sellers's repeated appeals, but could see no way to rewrite the script in the very short time available except to substitute Inspector Clouseau for the lead character and choreograph comic scenes on the fly as he and Sellers had successfully done for the previous film.3 The relationship between Edwards and Sellers deteriorated to such a point that at the conclusion of the film they vowed never to work together again. They eventually reconciled to collaborate successfully four years later on The Party, and on three more "Pink Panther" films in the 1970s. As with most of the other Clouseau films, A Shot in the Dark featured an animated opening credits sequence produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. This film and Inspector Clouseau are the only Clouseau films not to feature the Pink Panther character in the opening titles. Henry Mancini's theme for this film serves as opening theme and incidental music in "The Inspector" cartoon shorts made by DePatie-Freleng. Fran Jeffries sang the song "Shadows of Paris" (lyrics by Robert Wells). She also sang the song called "Meglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight)" in the film The Pink Panther. The movie was one of the 13 most popular films in the UK in 1965. The film was well received by critics. As of September 2012, it has 93% favorable reviews on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes out of 29 reviews counted. The average rating given by critics is 8 out of 10.